Try, try again

The First Rule of Needle Craft is buy more yarn than you think you actually need.

I tend to work in a gauge bigger than the pattern indicates. I don’t know if that’s because of my yarn tension, how I work stitches, or that I’m simply larger than life naturally. (I kid…)

Last December, I bought some lovely blue yarn. It matched a color I used to crochet an infinity cowl the winter before. It was as good a match I could hope for, and was a light and easily worked bamboo fiber. (The store where I bought the first yarn had closed, so that source was gone.)

I planned to crochet a hat to match the scarf, but that gauge thing was a complication to everything I tried. I abandoned that idea out of frustration, and because I don’t typically wear hats. (That’s my story… I’m sticking to it.)

The next idea was to make another scarf, more of a long wrap. I found a pattern I liked and it came together quickly. Until I realized I wouldn’t have enough yarn to make it as long as I wanted. Back to the store (nearly 50 miles away) where I bought the second skeins, only two months ago.

I should have called ahead. Not only did the store not have the color yarn I needed in stock, they didn’t carry the same brand any longer. There wasn’t even a good alternative to use as a contrasting, yet complementary color.

It was either pull out ALL. OF. THE. STITCHES, or figure a way to salvage the work I’d already finished. And, make it look like whatever I did was intentional.

Buttons… that’s what it needed… buttons.